NaNoWriMo anticipation is killing me (and my ability to write)

NaNoWriMo is coming and I am pumped, annoyed and terrified all at the same time. For the uninitiated, NaNoWriMo is a writing “contest” where you commit to writing an entire novel (here defined as 50,000 words) in a month, this month being November. For those of us that need deadlines to perform, this is a very fantastic thing for getting stuff done and also a fun community type dealie. For more info, visit http://www.nanowrimo.org

So, as you know, I wrote a solid chunk of my book during last year’s NaNoWriMo. I say a solid chunk because my book ended up being about twice 50,000 words so I didn’t actually finish it during the contest, though I did meet and pass the 50,000 word requirement.

This year, I am taking it easier on myself with NaNo because I have set myself the harder goal of finishing (a word which here means both finishing and editing) my existing novel before November starts. I want this book in the hands of my editors for them to review while I do NaNo. So I want it totally finished before Nov 1st. Then I intend to start a fresh novel in November meaning that I will start 2009 with not one but two novels in the can to shop around. This would be very awesome.

Said new NaNo novel is designed to be both easier to write and much much shorter than the book I am currently editing so it shouldn’t be as hard. Of course, this might be famous last words here and it might be much harder. We shall see.

On the downside, however, I am getting really excited about this years NaNo and the book I am going to write for that. Why is this a downside? Well, it’s distracting me from working on my current book. The new book is all “new book smell” and the old book is all “OMFG am I still editing this thing?” So it’s hard to motivate myself to work on the old book instead of the new. However, the fact that I will basically be hardcore fictioning from now to Dec 1st should mean that I stay in the zone and don’t have as many long stretches with no writing. So, here’s hoping!

My plan is to give a post all about my NaNo project in the near future (and hopefully to give people who want it the option to read it as a write it) so more to come on that in the coming weeks.

Want to see what other people are saying about NaNoWriMo? Check out this very addictive link. It shows you everyone that is talking about NaNoWriMo in real time as they say it. The closer it gets to November, the busier it gets so its good times.

Oh and if you care about real stuff, this have the same thing for the elections (which is much more likely to annoy, anger or make you vomit than the NaNo one). On a side note, I was watching that realtime link during the debates to see what other people were saying and you have to be a speed reader to follow everything. It’s insanity!